11/5/10

Megamind

Once again, we are warned, "Be careful what you wish for..."

Ever since his misbegotten childhood, Megamind, voiced by Will Ferrell ("The Other Guys"), has been a super-villain. His arch enemy, Metro Man, voiced by Brad Pitt ("Burn After Reading"), fights for Truth, Justice, and... Oh, you know....

These two mighty foes have battled for years, neither able to win a decisive victory over the other. One of their sources of contention is spunky television newscaster, Roxanne Richey, voiced by Tina Fey ("Date Night") who is totally fearless.... Well, maybe spiders..... She is ably assisted by her long-time cameraman Tighten, voiced by Jonah Hill ("Cyrus"), who is packing a huge adolescent crush on her.

To my surprise, this turned out to be a romance. I expected a morality tale, this movie is, after all, designed for children, but I enjoyed many delicious bits of humor aimed directly at us adults (mispronounced words and clever names for secondary characters), plus it was fun to watch the dawning of affection between two of the characters. Megamind learns it's hard to be Evil without having Good for balance; Roxanne learns that she sorta DOES judge a book by its cover; Metro Man learns he really DOES have a destiny.

Two things struck me:
  1. DreamWorks does spectacularly good animation: reflections in windows, ripples on water and Roxanne's hair blowing in the wind are the first three examples that come to mind.
  2. My companion and I agree that we like Will Ferrell and Jonah Hill much better when we don't have to SEE them. They both do a terrific job as voices. I wonder if it is Ferrell who does that great send-up of Brando.
Philippe Denis ("Shrek") is the visual effects supervisor and deserves special mention for the quality of his work.

Other than a fire alarm which caused the multiplex to be evacuated, a pleasant time was had by all.